Mayor Craig Greenberg introduces his first proposed budget to Louisville Metro Council

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Mayor Craig Greenberg gave his first proposed budget to members of the Louisville Metro Council.

The $1.1 billion budget includes funding to expand the group violence intervention program and 911 deflection programs. Moves the Mayor hopes will reduce gun violence.

There’s also a big focus on affordable housing.

That $1.1 billion consists of $868 million for the operating budget, which is a 3.5% increase from the previous year.

Mayor Greenberg said the goal of his budget is to focus on people and places within the city.

He said some of the ways to do so is by focusing on affordable housing and other projects in neighborhoods in need.

This includes a grocery store incentive program to ensure low-income neighborhoods have real grocery stores, investments in parks in low-income neighborhoods, fixing street lights downtown and making a large investment into the affordable housing fund.

“And today, I want to demonstrate my continued commitment to this cause. My budget for the next fiscal year invests $15 million in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund,” said Mayor Greenberg. “And I propose that we work with the AHTF to set up a robust and revolving loan fund that continue to support affordable housing projects far into the future.”

Mayor Greenberg said these changes will include using the old Watson Lane Elementary School and repurpose it for affordable housing.

Another key point was to cut down on violent crime in the metro.

Mayor Greenberg says he plans to invest into re-entry assistance programs, extending Metro Parks and Community Center hours into evenings and weekends as well as investing $222 million dollars into LMPD.

That includes hiring more homicide detectives, money for new police cruisers and protective gear, additional cameras at parks and other areas around the city and more license plate readers.

Responses he believes are necessary to create actual change.

“We have to do more to prevent crimes in the first place,” Mayor Greenberg said. “That’s why my budget elevates our existing violence prevention work and establishes and expands the Department of Group Violence Intervention.

The plan is to also invest into the expansion of the Deflection Program to focus on mental health and divert 911 class to social workers.

The Mayor’s Office said the 1.1 billion dollar budget in its entirety will be available later tonight for the public to see.

You can find some of the Mayor’s budget breakdown below.

• Gun Violence
  • New: Department of GVI; 2 additional positions and operations support - $230,000
  • 911 mental health Deflection services - $500,000
• Homelessness / Affordable Housing
  • Affordable Housing Trust Fund - $15,000,000
  • Small developer affordable housing preservation - $2,000,000
  • Rental Housing Development - Affordable Housing Trust Fund - $1,000,000
  • Infrastructure supporting affordable housing - $1,440,000
  • Watson Lane School acquisition - $1,000,000
  • Goodwill Opportunity Campus - $2,000,000
  • Community Care Campus - $2,000,000
  • Shelter / VOA - $200,000
  • Hope Village - Operating support - $300,000
  • Women’s Day Shelter - $3,000,000
• Parks
  • Bathroom and graffiti cleaning - $300,000
  • Mowing to maintain a 14-day cycle - $150,000
  • Expanded Community Center hours and programming - $750,000
  • Jefferson Memorial Forest Campground improvements - $500,000
  • Lighting project - $1,000,000
  • Wifi installation - $250,000
  • Community Center upgrades - $500,000
  • New maintenance equipment - $1,600,000
• Simmons College
  • Family Life Center; Athletic/Community Center - $5,000,000
• LMPD
  • Replace ballistic protective gear - $1,500,000
  • License Plate Readers - $1,500,000
  • Replacement, installation and LG&E fee for cameras in Real Time Crime Center - $180,000
  • Approx. 30 positions to further LMPD reforms and improvements as recommended by USDOJ - $2,134,000
  • Enhanced recruiting strategy - $1,000,000
  • Wellness Center upfit/IT and operating costs - $500,000
• Victim Services
  • Three Victim Services Coordinators - $166,000
• Public Safety
  • Specialized Fire Dept. skills training - $100,000
  • Youth Transitional Services body cameras - $53,000
  • Corrections clinical care and reentry assistance - $500,000
• Pre-K
  • Parkway Village/Keystone Academy acquisition - $500,000
• Downtown
  • Community Ambassador Program - $977,000
  • Grocery store subsidies - $6,000,000
  • Downtown Revitalization Fund - $8,000,000
  • Belvedere Master Planning - $150,000
  • CBD streetlight - $3,000,000
  • Belvedere K&I planning - $100,000
  • Underpass LED lighting - $1,600,000
  • Garbage cans - $300,000
• LouMed
  • Chestnut Street improvements - $1,750,000
  • Community Corrections Center demolition - $1,400,000
• Public Works
  • 5 positions to complete $150M of federal funding for construction projects - $540,100
  • Pilot Dept. of Transportation - $250,000
  • Street paving - $21,000,000
  • Street paving (Need based) - $5,000,000
  • Alley paving - $5,000,000
  • Sidewalk repair - $3,000,000
  • Traffic signal rebuilds - $4,800,000
  • Preston Corridor Master Plan - $2,000,000
• Open Records
  • New Department of Records Compliance; 6 new open records related positions and operations support - $475,100
• Arts and Tourism
  • Film Commission - $50,000
  • Louisville Tourism - $60,000
  • New Office of Arts and Creative Industries; 1 new position and operations - $125,000
  • Public Art - $500,000
• Economic Development
  • Build collaboration with GLI for talent attraction, regional economic development, branding - $400,000
  • New Director of City Partnerships - $150,000
• KentuckianaWorks
  • Youth Opportunity Center - $500,000
  • SPOT location South Location - $1,500,000
• Library
  • Asst. library manager of Newburg Library and additional teen programming - $220,000
  • Library Bookmobile - $250,000
• Codes and regulations
  • Rental Registry; personnel and vehicle costs - $2,100,000
• Public Health and Wellness
  • Marine Hospital renovations / improvements - $2,000,000
• Metro Facilities
  • Metro Hall renovations - $2,500,000
• Talent Retention and Recruitment
  • Non-union compensation adjustment - $11,815,100
  • Collective Bargaining Agreements - $8,212,300

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